For more than 150 years it was the world's most powerful force: between victory at Trafalgar in 1805 and the withdrawal from 'east of Suez' in the 1960s, the ships of the Royal Navy were ubiquitous. From Newfoundland to New South Wales and Cyprus to Ceylon, the Royal Navy was there, protecting British interests, projecting British power and maintaining British prestige. An Act of Parliament laid down that the Royal Navy had to maintain a number of...